James Gurney

This daily weblog by Dinotopia creator James Gurney is for illustrators, plein-air painters, sketchers, comic artists, animators, art students, and writers. You'll find practical studio tips, insights into the making of the Dinotopia books, and first-hand reports from art schools and museums.

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or by email:gurneyjourney (at) gmail.comSorry, I can't give personal art advice or portfolio reviews. If you can, it's best to ask art questions in the blog comments.

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All images and text are copyright 2015 James Gurney and/or their respective owners. Dinotopia is a registered trademark of James Gurney. For use of text or images in traditional print media or for any commercial licensing rights, please email me for permission.

However, you can quote images or text without asking permission on your educational or non-commercial blog, website, or Facebook page as long as you give me credit and provide a link back. Students and teachers can also quote images or text for their non-commercial school activity. It's also OK to do an artistic copy of my paintings as a study exercise without asking permission.

Jeff: good guess, but not dinosaurs directly. Crew Chief: Actually I wrote posts in advance and set them up to launch automatically while I was gone because I wasn't sure I'd have access to the internet. I was glad I did, because Blogger is blocked in most places, as is Facebook and YouTube.

If you don't mind me asking, what did you use to make these sketches? This is exactly the sort of thing I'm constantly striving to do - just "snapshot" sketches of everyday life. Did you really break out your watercolors in the middle of the airport? From the backseat of a car?

Gina, yes, I have a small watercolor set that I can pull out just about anywhere, such as in an airport waiting area. Same with the other sketch, which I drew in watercolor pencils from the back seat. These are both about 5x7 inches.

The watercolor of the plane is...mind-blowingly good. I looked at it last night for a long while and was dumbfounded.

I don't know if anyone else picked up on all the slight nuances, but as someone who paints (like you) everyday sights that mean something to me, I found your sketch fantastic in its execution.

It is just the simple things that are so impressive. The way the United is written in perspective and subtle. The way the turbine reflects off the tarmac with one bold stroke of glare, the way the you made the jet appear to have a glossy surface by adding the blue reflection near the tail that has a hard edge on top and dissolves as it goes under the plane. The way you used the window frames to give us a false proscenium, and ground us the viewer into your reality and vision.

The way you made us feel by surrounding and bathing the mostly blue plane with yellow light. I get a sense of the time of day, the light level, the angle of the sun, the amount of dust in the air, and the relative warmth outside.

Really, this is absolutely masterful. Thank you for challenging me to take my own work to the next degree by showing me some of yours. Peace

Peace, thanks for articulating all those observations about the picture. I guess they were all conscious choices at some level as I worked away, but my mind was also filled with worries about the boarding call and needing to use the bathroom and grab a cup of coffee.

For you and Gina, I have added a photo to the blog post of the actual scene.

I like it the way you saw it. The way you saw it was romantic. You are getting on a plane with your wife to go over seas. To do what? Share you awesome art with people. What a great life you are getting to live. Thank you for sharing some of it with us. Thank you for allowing us to see your life's beauties.